NTM Tuesday: Out of the Box, On the Plate

Learning to cook 2+ years ago was a big decision for me.  It meant trying not to eat out all the time.  It also was a move away from boxed, canned, and ready-prep foods.  While I don’t eat these things too often anymore, sometimes life conspires against me.  At the end of August, I worked a crazy schedule and found myself at the grocery late one evening wishing and hoping that something would jump off the shelf and fix itself.  I also had a hankering for a hot dog.  Something I eat very, very seldom.  I purchased a hot dog from the deli section and picked up two things to fix along with it.

Nothing pairs better with a hot dog than chili in my mind.  Without a stash of chili in my fridge or the time to make any, I headed to the canned food aisle to see what was available.  I am NOT  fan of canned chili.  I abhor Wolf branch chili.  The meat just tastes funky to me.  It always has, even before I started on this more meatless/meat-lite eating style.

While I am not a fan of canned chili, it occurred to me that vegetarian chili might be a different story.  Without the meat component, I thought this might be an option.  I picked up a can of Amy’s Organic Chili.  This is a brand I have tried before and liked.  I found one that I thought I might like.  This was easier said than done.

First, I had to find something that did not have the word “SPICY” splashed across it.  Mild chili wasn’t to be found.  I am unsure if they just don’t make one or if the grocery store was just out of any mild flavors.  This medium chili wasn’t too spicy for me, but might be too mild for some.  I am a spice wuss.

Another factor for this one was the abscense of tofu in the ingredients list.  At the time, I was having great problems with tofu and had chosen to avoid that product for the time being.

Verdict: With all my wants, wishes, and needs in mind, I narrowed my selection down to Amy’s Organic Chili with Vegetables.  All in all, I liked this chili.  It tasted well enough, didn’t taste too canned, and worked in a pinch.  I would love to learn how to make a more homemade version of it.  In the meantime, I’ll work with this in a pinch.

To accompany the chili, I chose to pick up a box of macaroni and cheese.  This is another thing I’m not a big fan of, and I blame my mother, wholeheartedly and thankfully.  My mom wasn’t much on canned, out of the box dinners.  She worked hard every day to provide a really good, home cooked meal every day for our family.  She has a few pet peeves when it comes to food, and boxed macaroni and cheese is one of them.  She absolutely refused to serve it to us at her house.  In fact, it wasn’t until I hit college that I ever tried it.  It’s not a favorite of mine, but I do eat it when there isn’t much time for anything else.  Or when I’ve eaten fish sticks.  You just have to have boxed macaroni and cheese with frozen fish sticks.  But that’s another story, I suppose.

I purchased two different types of Annie’s macaroni and cheese and ate them during that busy week.  I have to say that I was not pleased with either.  I followed the directions exactly and didn’t find these brand to be very good at all.  I didn’t taste any type of cheese flavoring at all, not even that god awful powdery cheese taste you get from Kraft.  And though I say that about Kraft boxed mac ‘n cheese, I do freelly admit to eating it on occassion of nostalgic college pursposes.  When making the cheese sauce, it seems way too thin and didn’t cling well to the macaroni.

Verdict: I didn’t care for this at all and fed leftovers to the dogs during the week to get rid of the abundance of boxed mac ‘n cheese.  If I feel an overwhelming urge to indulge in this type of product again, I’ll stick to the tried and true Kraft.

While this dinner was filling enough, I’m hoping not to get so busy to do this again any time soon.

Have a great day everyone!

Note: These product reviews were not solicited in any way, nor do the companies know I even did them. I was not compensated in any way for these opinions.